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Urban Renewal
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Urban Meyer, an Ashtabula native and former Florida coach, was offi cially introduced as the new head football coach of The Ohio State Univeristy during a press conference Monday in Columbus.
By Doug Lesmerises
The Plain Dealer
COLUMBUS
Urban Meyer pulled out the contract, the 24th head coach in Ohio State history referencing the document, written on pink paper, that he believes will change his life.
It wasn’t the contract that will pay the 47-year-old more than $4 million per year, plus perks and incentives, over the next six seasons to lead the Buckeyes. It was the contract written up by his 21-year-old daughter, Nicki, that the Meyer family hopes will allow him, less than a year after retiring as the coach at Florida, to get back into football with more balance and less of the unhealthy obsession with what he called “the pursuit of perfection.”
“It’s tougher than any other contract I’ve signed in my life,” Meyer said Monday.
Less than six months after forcing former coach Jim Tressel to resign in the wake of NCAA violations, and just two days after ending a 6-6 season under replacement Luke Fickell, Ohio State administrators know it was some combination of fate and luck that landed a candidate like Meyer in their laps.
A 10-year head coach with two national championships who grew up in Ashtabula and started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ohio State, Meyer is the coach from central casting sent to save the program after a season of suffering.
The primary question centers on the way he left the game a year ago, after previously retiring and quickly unretiring in 2009. If he’s ready, he’s a potential home run hire, as legendary OSU linebacker and Meyer friend Chris Spielman said.
“His passion for Ohio State is there. He knows what he is,” Spielman said. “He’s a Buckeye.”
That’s assuming Meyer is truly ready to jump back in, after taking on too much responsibility and refusing to delegate to his assistants in his final years with the Gators. Because of that, Meyer said he had second, third, fourth and fifth thoughts before taking this job.
He said he’ll start at Ohio State the way he did at Florida, where he beat the Buckeyes for the 2006 national title in his second season.
“That was a guy that did have balance, a guy that took care of himself, a guy that did not try to get involved and change everything,” Meyer said, noting the change he then couldn’t stop and didn’t like. “I’ve been to a place that I’m not going to go back. ... I was there. I’m not going back.”
Meyer’s wife, Shelley, who grew up in central Ohio, said it was the pressure to continue winning, after taking a second national title with a win over Oklahoma in 2008, along with the loss of several key assistants that pushed her husband over the edge.
“When you win two national championships, what’s good enough? There’s nothing ever good enough again,” Shelly Meyer said.
Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith said Meyer will be forced to take vacations. Shelley Meyer said opportunities to watch their children — Nicki, a Georgia Tech volleyball player; Gigi, Florida Gulf Coast volleyball player; and 13-year-old Nathan — play sports will be finagled.
And Urban and Shelly Meyer called the decision to retain Fickell, who will serve a significant role on the defensive staff and could have a title like assistant head coach, important in helping to share the load.
“We had great conversations about his health issues,” Smith said. “We had a great deal of research done on him. And I feel confident that we’ll work very hard to make sure we meet the requirement of his daughter’s contract.”
Meyer’s real contract includes potential raises approved by the OSU Board of Trustees each year. He’ll also receive a $250,000 signing bonus and three retention bonuses, in 2014, 2016 and 2018, for a total of $2.4 million. All told, that would bring his average guaranteed compensation, if he serves his full six-year term, to $4.44 million per year. According to the USA Today”s coaching salary database, that would rank Meyer third among 2011 contracts, behind only Texas’ Mack Brown and Alabama’s Nick Saban. Tressel would have been slated to earn $3.77 million in 2012.
Meyer, after one season away missing coaching while serving as an ESPN broadcaster, said only the Ohio State job would have brought him back right now.
“It’s a decision I’m very proud of, a decision that was not thought of overnight, a decision that had a lot of prayer, a lot of research,” Meyer said. “At the end of the day, to tell you that we’re excited to be back is not a strong-enough statement. We’re grateful to be welcomed back home.”